The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) is a membership association with approximately 700 members, which helps community colleges nationwide link their traditional role of workforce development with entrepreneurship.

NACCE fosters economic development by serving as the hub for dissemination and integration of knowledge and practices for entrepreneurship education and student business incubation. The organization was created to establish entrepreneurship education as a core offering through the community college systems.

Entrepreneurship education is being established at community colleges across the country with hundreds of schools providing leadership in the field of entrepreneurship. Efforts at two-year schools range from traditional classroom courses in credit and non credit entrepreneurship programs to offerings such as student business incubators, micro loan programs and venture capital funding to help aspiring entrepreneurs start businesses, and mentorship programs that match students with local entrepreneur role models.

The Coleman Foundation and NACCE entered into a three-year matching grant commitment. The grant funds are to establish and support organizational infrastructure intended to market services, grow membership, increase conference attendance, develop curriculum, conduct research on entrepreneurship education, and become a self-sustaining organization.

In support of the community college initiative, the foundation funds programs such as the Entrepreneurial Pathway Community College Articulation Project. The three-year effort involves the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University Fresno and ten community colleges in identifying mechanisms to build knowledge and skills that lead to launching new businesses.

NACCE hosts an annual conference for community college administrators and educators. For more information about the organization, conference or membership, visit their website at www.nacce.com.

 

$125,000 Elevator Grant Session at 2008 NACCE Annual Conference

The Coleman Foundation and the John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Charitable Foundation hosted an Elevator Grant competition during the January 2008 NACCE conference which provided an opportunity for community college educators to compete for grants between $5,000 and $7,500.

At the conference, the Coleman Foundation announced the winners of the competition and awarded grants totaling $84,100 to fifteen community colleges to advance entrepreneurship education programming at their schools. The Foundation received proposals and heard “elevator pitches” from selected applicants. This format, consisting of three minute presentations followed by brief questions, is based upon a popular model used in business to teach students how to articulate their ideas in a concise and compelling manner. For a complete listing of grants awarded, please refer to the Recent Grants page.

The John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Charitable Foundation also participated in the session. The board heard elevator pitch presentations and awarded grants to four community colleges totaling $24,000. The funds are to support programs for development of self-employment topics, establishment of a student resource center, and training and consulting to rural entrepreneurs.